Rating: 
Summary: More thrills from Sandford
Review: Mortal Prey features the return of two of Sandford's best characters: Lucas Davenport, one of the great detective personalities in modern mystery writing, and Clara Rinker, an assassin for the mob who is written with more complexity and intensity than ever before.
This novel is as complex as any Sandford has written. It begins with the murder of Rinker's boyfriend in Mexico. Being a member of the Mexican mafia, the man's family believes his death was simply a hit, but Rinker knows better - it was a botched attack on her. She travels back home to the United States both out of a desire for revenge and to protect her own life. Rinker knows not only that they will come after her again, but that if her boyfriend's Mexican mafia family realizes their son was killed during a hit on her, they'll come after her in retaliation.
Her return to the United States does not go unnoticed by the FBI. Davenport is called in to track her down, leading to a wonderful escape-suspense-pursuit story that keeps you turning the pages.
I like Sandford's writing and I read everything he writes featuring Davenport. For the uninitiated, Mortal Prey is a great place to begin reading in the `Prey' series. And of course, fans of the earlier books will enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: Mortal Prey is another great book by John Sandford. I am 2/3 of the way through the book but I read the review by
L. Huff "Educated reader" who complains of the same conversation being in the story twice. This reviewer foolishly believes Sandford carelessly repeated himself. Not true. This is the conversation from both Rinker's and Davenport's point of view and it isn't confusing at all. I just thought I'd clarify that for those considering this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect beach chair thriller!
Review: The best thrillers are the ones where you are both cheering for the cops and the villain. Clara Rinker is an assassin with a very personal and sympathetic mission. She is clever, cold, and sophisticated. She is out for revenge for the killing of her true love and their unborn child. Her goal is to eliminate four mob bosses. Lucas Davenport, the hero of the series, is part of an FBI "study group" out to stop her. She is smart but vulnerable, but he is equal to the task without being omniscient. Like his other novels, Sandford makes the reader feel like they are really part of a police investigation---all the good bits, without the boring police procedural parts. The story and the writing is perfect for reading. One could almost see a screen play, but so much of the story goes on around the moves of the main characters that any picture inside the reader's head seems more vivid than what can possibly be portrayed on screen. His style and the action is tight, gripping, and easy to follow. The ending is predictable, but it is so cynical and in line with the tone of the novel and the rest of the series---it is so real---that it leaves the reader feeling very satisfied and wanting more. The writer just gets better and better. Can't wait for his next story.
Rating:
Summary: An Edge of Your Seat Thriller!
Review: This is the first John Sandford novel that I've ever read, and I really enjoyed it. It probably would have been better to have read some of the earlier books in the series in order to understand the history of Clara Rinker and Lucas Davenport, but the author does a pretty good job of bringing the reader up to date with this book. I found that the book had me cheering for the bad girl, as well as the good guys, and I was absolutely glued to the tape machine to hear what happened next. The story is about a female hit lady (the best in the business), and her personal vendetta to right wrongs done to her and to the man that she loved. She has a list of four names that she wants to wreak her vengeance on, and we see how brilliant she is in accomplishing this. Even more notable when the four names are names very high up in organized crime in St. Louis. I now need to read more Lucas Davenport books!
Rating: 
Summary: Lucas Davenport Meets His Match....Almost
Review: This may well be the best plotted book of the "Prey" series. Lucas Davenport once danced with Clara Rinker, the most clever of all assassins and a female to boot. Clara had escaped from him in a previous case and seemingly disappeared. Living in South America in what she thought was a new and good life with her lover, Paulo, her world is shattered when Paulo is gunned down. Only Clara knows the bullet was actually intended for her. Clara is wounded in the shooting but during her recovery she learns to shoot long distance firearms and plans her revenge. Returning to St. Louis she methodically guns down the mobsters that she believed to have been responsible for Paulo's death. The FBI calls in Lucas Davenport because he is one of the few people who have actually met Clara in person. She sucessfully kills several people while "the chase is on" and begins to look unstopable. After finally being wounded, she recovers one more time and follows Lucas back to Minneapolis. Buy the book...read it when you have time to finish it...and enjoy a good mystery. Hope the next one is on the way.
Rating:
Summary: A uniquie "bad guy" in the Prey series
Review: While trying to read these books in order, I picked up Mortal Prey because I needed an audio book for a long trip. I didn't want to because I knew the bad guy in this book, bad girl assassin "Clara Rinker" was also in a previous novel.
The novel opens in the traditional Prey method of desribing the nemisis first. Rinker is in a hospital bed after a failed attempt on her life that took the life of her fiance and unborn child. We quickly discover who tried to kill Rinker and follow her trip back to the USA where she vows vegance on the Mafia guys who tried to kill her.
Not knowing about Rinker from the earlier novel, I immediately have sympathy for her. Sandford follows her efforts with precise detail and covers her background of abuse and neglect just enough for me to be happy when she succeeds in her revenge plots.
Lucas Davenport joins the FBI and together they are always one step ahead of Rinker. It is frustrating in cases like this that the cops must fail to keep the story moving, but Stanford does a good job of keeping the investigation moving.
Clara Rinker is a sympathetic person until she starts taking out cops, FBI agents and innocent bystanders. Finally, she is the bad guy that we want to see die. Davenport, after many failures, is a worthy adversary of Rinker and the novel comes to a satisfying conclusion.
I'm interested in reading the previous Rinker novel to see what kind of character she is. As usual, Standford has written another good novel.
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